As many people here likes to make a diet to their MINI, I'm here to share my weight loss plan hoping to help someone.
Please notice the all the weights referred in the "done" part are certified 100% with a very nice baby balance with 0.01kg error
here it is:



After this little introduction, here's the link to an Excel file that explain all the mods I've done (from first voice to "partial" row) until today.

www.oltreilimiti.com/varie/weights_MCS_bagarospo.xls


The car now figures as this:








The rear plastic panels are made a very very useful, SO LIGHT and cheap plastic material, but I dont know how to say it in english.
It is the same material used for children drawing suitcases (usually white), do you understand?
I can found this material in garden or wood shops as panels.
It's very very easy to model because you can simply cut it with a cutter and make the right form.
It's SO light and has a good finish that there's no better material to do this works. Please notice that the rear seats and the trunk floor delete panels weight, together, only 1.5lbs. that's amazing!
And it has a very finishing surface too, so you wont hate it because it ruins your car aspect


Actually, the total weight lost is 182lbs, and I can feel the difference veeeeeery well. I have about 45-55 more lbs that I could save but without the plastic door and rear panels and the main floor carpet the car would like maybe too much poor for a road use. I will think about it anyway
Now the car simply turns so much better, the rear is very less stable and now it corners like a sporty car is supposed to do.
The suspensions works much better as the wheels are much lighter. EVERYTHING of dynamic movement is much better


hope you like this work

 

So what is the total weight of your car (with what amount of gas in it)?
answer: 1051Kg = 2317lbs. Geez, that's light.

looks good!!

 

Glad to see that you decided to start a thread! We exchanged a couple of PM's, and I encouraged bagarospo to share with us... I hope the right folks will see it here in the Suspension forum though. EDIT - Looks like it's now in Interior/Exterior.

I'm still not certain what you mean by that material, but it sounds very interesting! And I like how you documented everything on that Excel sheet .

I'm also around - 180 pounds, and the difference is quite noticable. I still have the front seats (30), lightened flyhweel (15), A/C (23) and some smaller items to address, so 250+ so pounds seems very realistic!

Thanks for sharing with the Community .

 

i think i can lose weight quicker if i exercised and became a vegetarian again ... great work

 

Hey. I'm italian and can tell you its a lot easier to drop weight by just not taking the wife with you when you drive

 

There is still some things that can come out of the read of the car.

Seat belts
Rear seat clips on top and bottom

And you still have the door/side panels

 

Getting weight removed from the rear is certainly easier on these cars. The rear belts, hardware and clips are a few more pounds...

 

I know, but as I'm risking with polices just at this, I think that removing the rear belts they will get my documents for sure

About the front and rear plastic panels, they're 33 pounds ( ) and I will think about their removing but actually I'm going to keep them for a while

 

Same could be said for not taking the husband with you...

Just trying to make it fair for us ladies.

 

hello guys!

here are the first pics of the future panels removing program...




this fantastic material is only 420 grams for each panel, instead of the 3,73kgs of the original plastic panel! :impatient :impatient

and the finish is not bad anyway

 

I now know what material you are referring to. That's a nice weight loss delta!

 

I like that the panels are light and all. Maybe I just think I would leave the panels out so the car looks more mechanical.

 

double post

 

door panels removing operation succesfully completed impatient:impatient





I've attached a velvet paper on them, and they are very nice now!
each panel weights 0,480kgs against 3,52kgs of the original ones, so I've dropped 6 more kgs

I've also removed the headlamps and windscreen cleaning water, 4,4kgs together... and now I'm at -92,6kgs (203,72 lbs) :impatient


pretty cool, isnt it?

 

More practical now... with the grab hanldes! Nice, clean work. Over 200 lbs is excellent - keep-it-up!

 

Are you trying to keep the functionality of the car? Because I see alot of trim peices that can be removed in the driver and passenger area.

 

Tony B, What is that material?

 

I guess it was a few weeks back when this thread started, but I either found a link to this material, or someone provided it to me. I just don't remember now! Maybe bagarospo has a website that he can share...

 

BAGAROSPO: Where in Italy are you? I lived in Vigonovo(PN) for 3 years. The Italian government is pretty tight on modding the cars. My buddy who had an Audi A3 said that you couldn't beef up the HP or swap bigger rims out without getting in trouble. How true is that? BTW, I have gutted most of my interior and still have the front carpet, airbags, headliner and a few other things left. A lot of weight is saved. I like what you have done to the panels.
You need to save as much weight as possible so you can have the response time to swerve out of the way of the little old ladies on mopeds or bicycles.

 

Tony, I'm sorry but I didn't find a link to share


UKSUV: I live in Riccione, next to Rimini, on the Adriatic Coast... your buddy said right, for the italian law you shouldn't change even a headlamp if it's not omologated... even the brake pads!!!
That's amazing and ridicolous...
fortunatly, the controls usually aren't so hard, so if you've been checked in a police block, you can find a good cop that understand the situation, but it depends... you can also find an ******* that take your documents, make you pay 360€ and send you to the civil motorization to check the car, and you have to unmount all the mods to pass it... :impatient :impatient :impatient
that's Italy, but I have to say that as I risk for my mods, I risk much less than you american guys on hard driving, as there're no controls in the towns' neighbours, so I can drive on my hills as fast as I can without risking my licence

 

Damn....I miss Italy......;(